THAILAND
Floods kill six
Floods in the south have killed at least six people and affected tens of thousands of households, authorities said yesterday. The floods, which began on Friday last week, have hit more than 70,000 homes across the provinces of Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, regional officials said. Six people including an 89-year-old woman and a toddler were killed in Narathiwat, province Deputy Governor Preecha Nualnoi said. Another person was still missing following days of intense rain, which sparked floodwaters that reached about 3m in height in some places, he said. Local media footage showed streets submerged by the muddy deluge and residents taking refuge on rooftops.
AUSTRALIA
Cocaine found on beaches
Police yesterday said that they were scouring beaches after mysterious packages believed to contain more than 120kg of cocaine washed up over the Christmas period. A first batch of 39 barnacle-encrusted, 1kg bricks of suspected cocaine was discovered on Friday last week near Magenta Beach, north of Sydney, police said. Since then, another 85 packages of the same size had been spotted along about 80km of the New South Wales coastline, state police said. Police urged people to report any suspicious packages, New South Wales Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Weinstein said in a statement. “Detectives and specialist police are currently combing beaches and coastlines for any outstanding packages and working behind the scenes to make sure we find and hold accountable those responsible,” said Weinstein, who is director of the state’s crime command.
CHINA
US labor reporter sanctioned
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said it had sanctioned Kharon, a US firm founded by former US Department of the Treasury officials that provides data to companies on alleged forced labor in the Xinjiang region to help them comply with US laws. The foreign ministry said it would take “countermeasures” against Kharon and its director of investigations for providing “so-called evidence for America’s illegal sanctions related to Xinjiang.” The Los Angeles-based Kharon said it had no presence in China, so the action was “largely symbolic” and would not impact its operations or ability to service its clients. Kharon said companies depend on its forced labor data to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
JAPAN
Fukushima ruling slashed
The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday ruled that only the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant had to pay damages to dozens of evacuees, relieving the government of responsibility. Plaintiffs criticized the ruling as belittling their suffering and the severity of the disaster. The court also slashed the amount to half of a lower court’s decision, ordering Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings (TEPCO) to pay ¥23.5 million (US$164,882) to 44 of the 47 plaintiffs. The ruling backpedaled from an earlier decision in March 2018, when the Tokyo District Court held both the government and TEPCO accountable for the disaster, which the ruling said could have been prevented if they both took better precautionary measures, ordering both to pay ¥59 million in damages. Motomitsu Nakagawa, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said he was infuriated by the high court ruling, which he called a “copy and paste” of an earlier Supreme Court decision relieving the government of responsibility.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home